Tag Archives: author_name|Danny Gallagher

Yooka-Laylee remaster rolling to all consoles, including Nintendo’s next system

Posted on by

Playtonic Games’ ode to the 3D platformers of the ‘90s is coming to modern consoles. Yooka-Laylee is getting a remastered version called Yooka-Re-playee for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and “Nintendo platforms,” according to the press release. It’s possible the plural use of platform refers to the current-gen Nintendo Switch and Nintendo’s next console.

Yooka-Laylee is a spiritual successor of sorts to 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro the Dragon. In fact, some of the people who worked on the original Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country helped bring Yooka-Laylee to life.

Playtonic funded the development of its launch title’s with a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015 that raised more than £2 million. The game came out two years later for consoles, PC and Mac. Then in 2017, Playtonic Games released a sequel called Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.

The remastered version comes with updated graphics, new enemies to pounce on and revised controls and camera views. The original score penned by Banjo-Kazooie’s Grant Kirkhope and Donkey Kong Country’s David Wise is also getting an update from a full orchestra.

Yooka-Laylee plays like an updated Banjo-Kazooie in a new, colorful, open world to explore. The titular duo are a chameleon and a bat fighting a ruthless CEO named Capital B who attempts to steal all the books in the world with a giant vacuum. Yooka and Laylee head to a world called Hivory Towers to stop Capital B from finding the “Pagies” of the One Book that can rewrite the universe.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/yooka-laylee-remaster-rolling-to-all-consoles-including-nintendos-next-system-192541702.html?src=rss

Tesla says it will ‘begin launching’ new and more affordable EVs next year

Posted on by

One of Tesla’s biggest downsides has always been the upfront cost of its electric vehicles versus gas models. The cheapest car it currently sells is $42,490 before subsidies, and the average Kelley Blue Book starting price of its 2024 models is just over $63,000.

Tesla wrote in its third-quarter disclosure report that it’s making “preparations” to offer new vehicles with “more affordable models.” The EV maker’s cost of goods sold per vehicle also came down to “its lowest level ever” at $35,1000.

“Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025,” the report reads. “These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle line-up.”

Tesla also says it plans to “begin launching” its cheaper EV models “in the first half of 2025.” That wording is still fairly loose, so there’s no guarantee that a new model will ship the same year.

The other surprise in Tesla’s report came from the numbers. It turns out that despite setbacks like the Cybertruck’s fifth recall and a federal investigation into its EVs’ Full Self-Driving feature, Tesla had a fairly robust third quarter. The carmaker’s net income rose by 8 percent to $2.51 billion and sales rose by 2 percent year-over-year. The news also ends its four-quarter streak of missed earnings targets.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-says-it-will-begin-launching-new-and-more-affordable-evs-next-year-215038050.html?src=rss

Blizzard announces Warcraft 30th anniversary stream next month

Posted on by

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Warcraft gaming universe but there’s not going to be a BlizzCon gathering to celebrate it. So Blizzard is doing the next-best thing by holding a live streaming event.

Blizzard announced that its special Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct stream will start at 1PM ET on Wednesday, November 13. The broadcast will run on Blizzard’s official streaming channels for Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.

There aren’t many details available about what Warcraft fans can expect to see during the livestream except for a special concert celebrating World of Warcraft’s 20th anniversary. Following the stream, Blizzard will broadcast a live concert called World of Warcraft: 20 Years of Music from Switzerland. The 21st Century Orchestra and the choirs Tales of Fantasy, Ardito and the Madrijazz Gospel will perform selected songs from the MMORPG’s iconic soundtrack.

Activision Blizzard announced back in April that it wouldn’t be holding a BlizzCon gathering this year despite WoW’s momentous milestone. Maybe that’s because things have been a little rocky for the game company in the past few years. Microsoft included Activision Blizzard in its round of 1,900 layoffs alongside ZeniMax at the beginning of the year, and in the months after the studio formed the largest wall-to-wall union in the industry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-announces-warcraft-30th-anniversary-stream-next-month-210021972.html?src=rss

Apple, Goldman Sachs fined $89 million for misleading Apple Card customers

Posted on by

The Apple Card has landed Apple and Goldman Sachs in hot water. In a press release spotted by The Verge, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it was fining the two companies a combined $89 million over practices involving the Apple Card.

The CFPB says Apple failed to send “tens of thousands” of disputed card transactions to Goldman Sachs. When it finally sent the transactions to the investment bank, Goldman Sachs failed to follow “numerous federal requirements for investigating the disputes,” according to the CFPB’s announcement.

Apple and Goldman are also accused of misleading customers about the Apple Card. Some consumers believed they could make interest-free payments to purchase an Apple device with the credit card but interest charges still showed up on their bill “because they were not automatically enrolled as expected.”

Apple is also accused of keeping its interest-free payment option off of its website if the customer wasn’t using a Safari browser. The CFPB also says Goldman Sachs misled customers about the application of some refunds that racked up additional interest charges.

The CFPB has ordered Goldman Sachs to pay at least $19.8 million in redress funds and a $45 million civil money penalty. The company is also required to present a “credible plan” to comply with laws before launching any new credit card product. Apple also received a $25 million civil money penalty that will go to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.

Apple and Goldman Sachs introduced the Apple Card in 2019, advertising it as a product that could “help customers lead a healthier financial life.”. Four years later, a report from the Wall Street Journal said that Goldman Sachs was starting to have doubts about the consumer lending industry and thought the venture may have been a mistake.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-goldman-sachs-fined-89-million-for-misleading-apple-card-customers-192538650.html?src=rss

Huawei appears to still be using TSMC chips despite US sanctions

Posted on by

A Canadian research firm called TechInsights took a deep dive on one of Huawei’s artificial intelligence accelerators and found a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Bloomberg spoke with several people familiar with the investigation who asked to remain anonymous since TechInsights’ report has been released to the public. 

The anonymous sources says TechInsights’ investigation found an Ascend 910B chip made by TSMC in one of Huawei’s AI accelerators. The company that conducted the investigation declined to comment.

Reuters reports that TechInsights informed TSMC of its findings before publishing its report. This prompted TSMC to notify the US Commerce Department earlier this month. The Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that TSMC told the department that a customer had placed orders for a chip similar to Huawei's Ascend 910B. One of the FT's sources said that TSMC "had spoken both to the customer involved and to the commerce department" after recieving the suspicious order.  

The US Commerce Department implemented additional trade restrictions against Huawei that barred the electronics company from obtaining chips made by foreign firms. Earlier this year, the US government tightened its restrictions even further by revoking its licenses with Intel and Qualcomm to produce chips for its devices.

TSMC denied that it had a working relationship with Huawei since mid-September of 2020 in a statement provided to the Commerce Department. TSMC also told Bloomberg that it hasn’t produced any chips for Huawei due to the amended restrictions. Huawei denied that it had ever “launched the 910B chip.”

This isn’t the first time Huawei has been caught trying to subvert US sanctions and trade restrictions. Bloomberg also uncovered in May that Huawei funded secret research in the US at universities including Harvard by funneling the money through a Washington-based scientific research foundation called Optica. The foundation said it decided to return the money in June and chief executive officers Elizabeth Rogen and Chad Stark stepped down the following August.

Update, October 22, 7:10PM ET: This story was updated after publish with more details from the Financial Times' reporting on the matter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/huawei-appears-to-still-be-using-tsmc-chips-despite-us-sanctions-222617636.html?src=rss

Qualcomm and Google team up to help carmakers create AI voice systems

Posted on by

Car manufacturers will be able to develop new AI voice assistants for their cars thanks to a new partnership with Qualcomm and Google. Qualcomm announced earlier today that it’s working with Google on a new AI development system for carmakers.

The new version is based on Android Automotive OS (AAOS), Google’s infotainment platform for cars. Qualcomm is offering its Snapdragon Digital Chassis with Google Cloud and AAOS to generate new AI-powered digital cockpits for cars. Qualcomm also unveiled two new chips for powering driving systems including the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite for dashboards and the Snapdragon Ride Elite for self-driving features.

The new interface will allow car drivers and passengers to interact with custom voice assistants, immersive maps and real-time driving updates. Carmakers can use the new system to create their own unique and marketable AI voice assistants that don’t require a connection to a smartphone.

Other carmakers have taken steps to try to integrate AI systems in its vehicles. Volkswagen announced plans at CES 2024 that it would integrate ChatGPT in its cars’ voice assistants across a range of newer models. After a slow start, AAOS now underpins vehicles from several manufacturers including Chevrolet, Honda, Volvo and Rivian.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/qualcomm-and-google-team-up-to-help-carmakers-create-ai-voice-systems-211510693.html?src=rss

NASA’s newest telescope can detect gravitational waves from colliding black holes

Posted on by

NASA showed off a telescope prototype for a new gravitational wave detection mission in space. The telescope is part of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission led by the European Space Agency (NSA) in partnership with NASA.

The goal of the LISA mission is to position three spacecraft in a triangular orbit measuring nearly 1.6 million miles on each side. The three spacecraft will follow the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Each spacecraft will carry two telescopes to track their siblings using infrared laser beams. Those beams can measure distances down to a trillionth of a meter.

Gravitational waves are created during a collision between two black holes. They were first theorized by Albert Einstein in 1916 and detected almost a century later by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration from the National Science Foundation, Caltech and MIT. A gravitational wave is detected when the three spacecraft shift from their characteristic pattern.

The LISA mission is scheduled to launch in the mid-2030s. The detection of gravitational waves could provide “enormous potential” to better our understanding of the universe, including events like black holes and the Big Bang that are difficult to study through other means, according to the official mission website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-newest-telescope-can-detect-gravitational-waves-from-colliding-black-holes-194527272.html?src=rss

More than 10,500 artists sign open letter protesting unlicensed AI training

Posted on by

Some of the biggest names in Hollywood, literature and music have issued a warning to the artificial intelligence industry. The Washington Post reports that more than 10,500 artists have signed an open protest letter objecting to AI developers’ “unlicensed use” of artists’ work to train their models.

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted,” the one sentence letter reads.

The letter has support from some huge names across the film, television, music and publishing industries. Some of the more famous signatures include actors Julianne Moore, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Bacon and F. Murray Abraham, as well as former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon, author James Patterson and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.

The unauthorized use of their work to train AI models has been an area of major concern among creatives. The SAG-AFTRA union and Writers Guild of America recently held industry-wide strikes demanding better protections for their work and livelihood against the use of AI in studio projects.

There are also several lawsuits currently in courts accusing some AI developers of using copyrighted content without permission or proper compensation.On Monday, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post sued Perplexity AI for violating their copyright protections. Music labels like Universal, Warner and Sony sued the makers of the Suno and Uido AI music makers back in June for violating its copyright protections on a “massive scale.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/more-than-10500-artists-sign-open-letter-protesting-unlicensed-ai-training-174544491.html?src=rss

Spider-Man 2 will crawl onto PCs in January

Posted on by

It’s been over a year since Peter Parker and Miles Morales joined forces for their epic crossover adventure game on the Sony PlayStation 5. Now they are swinging their way to PCs early next year.

Sony announced at New York Comic Con today that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is getting a PC release on January 30, 2025 on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The fans who got to hear the news first also witnessed the new trailer for the game’s PC remake.

The new release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will come in two different versions and both have plenty of extra features and perks for those very patient PC players. The “Standard Edition” comes with the full game and all the PS5 updates such as 14 new suits, “Ultimate Levels,” new styles of symbiote suits and an action figure mode in photo mode. The “Digital Deluxe Edition” also comes with five exclusive new suits for Peter and Miles each, early unlocks for Peter’s Arachknight suit, Miles, Shadow-Spirit suit and the web grabber gadget and additional items for photo mode.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 features the two most famous names from the Spider-Verse (not counting Stan Lee) in an expanded version of the Big Apple taking on one of the longest lists of villains in just about any comic book based game. The two take on bad guys like Kraven, Black Cat and Scorpion without giving away too many appearances. Of course, the one most of the fans looked forward to seeing is that deep voiced, slimy symbiote Venom.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/spider-man-2-will-crawl-onto-pcs-in-january-223143137.html?src=rss

Penguin Random House amends its copyright rules to protect authors from AI

Posted on by

Artificial intelligence makers have faced a mountain of criticism for borrowing from the work of others to train its models. Now the world’s largest publishing house is taking steps to ensure its authors don’t have their work plagiarized in the name of progress.

The Bookseller reports that Penguin Random House Publishing changed the copyright page at the front of its books to address using any of its titles as a source for AI training. Now the wording states: “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.”

The new wording also protects against data absorption by noting the publisher “expressly reserves [the titles] from the text and data mining exception.” This part of the amended text comes from a recent European Parliament directive regarding text and data mining exceptions and ownership.

Penguin Random House is the latest publishing company to take action against encroaching AI models. Earlier this week, The New York Times issued a cease and desist letter to the AI startup Perplexity to spot using its articles and stories to help its AI model create answers for users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/penguin-random-house-amends-its-copyright-rules-to-protect-authors-from-ai-210436839.html?src=rss